| 380 CHAPTER 20.
1862-1863.
THE English mission was the first foreign mission prosecuted by the Reorganization, and deserves special mention.
We have already noticed the appointment of elders to this mission and given some items from them while in the field.
We will now relate consecutively some of the events incident to the opening of the mission, as extracted from the writings of Elder Charles Derry, as published in Autumn Leaves. Elder Derry, though not the first appointed to go, was the first to reach that field, and the first missionary of the Reorganization to visit a foreign shore.
"On the sixth day of December, 1862, though not fully recovered from more than two months' sickness (for I had been very sick before I received my appointment), I bade farewell to my wife and children and started on my mission to England. . . .
"Through the kindness of Mr. William Brittain (since a noble brother) and his wife, my family was permitted to occupy a log house twelve feet square, and I must here say that the following brethren had kindly pledged their word to me, that, so far as they were able to prevent, my family should not suffer for the necessaries of life: Jairus M. Putney, William Brittain, Rufus Pack, John Leeka, Elijah Gaylord, and, I think, Daniel Harrington and Joseph Craven. Right nobly did they fill their pledge as wife testified to me, on my return. . . .
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